The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to fluidic systems, including microfluidic and industrial-scale systems, and more particularly, to systems and methods for metering fluid, such as a reagent in such a system.
In various research, medical, industrial, and commercial contexts systems may be employed that rely on metering a fluid from one location to another, such as to facilitate a chemical or pharmacological reaction. For example, a fluid in the form of a liquid may need to be moved from one location to another in precisely measured increments or units or may need to be added to a reaction chamber in a precise dose and within a precise time frame. The scale of such operations may range from the microfluidic sale in a laboratory or research context to the industrial scale, such as in a manufacturing or production context.
In many cases fluid transport (in micro and macro dimensions) relies on mechanical pumping that moves the fluid by mechanical action. If the circumstances do not favor mechanical pumping it is possible to use hydraulic induced flow or gas pressure driven flow. However, hydraulic fluid transport typically requires a high level of design of the fluid flow path and is not suitable for handling micro dimensions where no gravitational force is present. While gas pressure driven flow is flexible and largely size independent, however a constraint on such gas driven approaches is that volumetric metering relies on sensing of the flow rate and/or timing accuracy of control valves of the flow.